Shoe rest



United States Patent C SHOE REST Clifton M. Lee, Hendersonville, Tenn., assignor to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Flemington, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Application December 24, 1953, Serial No. 400,295

6 Claims. (Cl. 12-123) This invention relates to shoe rests for use in shoe machines and is particularly concerned with an improved shoe rest construction of the general type disclosed in United States Letters Patent No. 2,137,331, issued on November 22, 1938, on an application filed in the name of Philip E. Burby.

As is pointed out in the mentioned patent, the shoe rest disclosed therein is intended to provide a iirm support for a shoe against clamping pressure applied to the bottom face of the shoe and to adjust itself readily to different shoes so as to bear evenly on each shoe over a substantial area and thus avoid the application of excessive pressure on a comparatively small area of the upper of the shoe. Thus, this prior toe rest construction includes a rigid metal block which is mounted for universal tipping movement and a flexible cover on the block comprising an inner deformable and resilient layer formed of felt or other suitable material and an outer shoe-engaging layer formed of leather. While shoe rests of this prior type have proved to be generally satisfactory for the intended purposes and have gone into rather wide use, for example, in toe-lasting machines of the general type disclosed in United States Letters Patent No. 2,160,846, issued on June 6, 1939, on an application iiled in the name of Fred C. Eastman and Arthur F. Pym, under some extreme operating conditions certain difliculties did arise. For example, Where the machine is being used to last shoes having upper materials of different colors, there is a tendency for the outer leather layer of the cover to pick up color from the upper of one shoe and to transfer this color to the upper of a succeeding shoe. Also, despite the yieldable and conformable nature of the cover as a whole, there may be a tendency for the toe rest to apply excessive pressure on a limited area of the upper of the shoe suicient to leave an objectionable mark on the upper.

It is, therefore, a principal object of this invention to provide a novel and improved toe rest construction which wholly or substantially avoids the aforementioned diiculties. With this purpose in view, and in accordance with this invention, there is substituted for the outer shoeengaging layer of leather a sheet of relatively thin metal which is flexible enough to bend and conform to the shape of that portion of the shoe which is engaged by the shoe rest, in response to the clamping pressure applied to the bottom face of the shoe, and yet has suicient resiliency to return to its original shape when such clamping pressure is relieved. Preferably, this sheet is formed of a non-corrosive metal, such as stainless steel, and is provided with a smooth outer surface for engaging the upper of the shoe. With this novel arrangement it has been found that even under quite extreme operating conditions a substantially uniform application of pressure over the entire area of the upper engaged by the shoe rest is obtained and the danger of marking the upper is thus eliminated. Also, due to its impervious character and smooth operating surface the metallic layer of the shoe rest cover has little or no tendency to pick up color from the upper of a shoe and even if any color or other extraneous material is retained on the cover it may readily be wiped off by the operator before it can be transferred to a succeeding shoe.

The above and other objects and features of the invention will appear in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment thereof which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and will be pointed out in the claims.

ICC

In the drawings,

Fig 1 is a view in side elevation, partly in section, of a portion of a toe-lasting machine provided with a toe rest constructed in accordance with this invention;

Fig. 2 is a view of the toe rest in vertical section, substantially on line II-II and looking in the direction of the arrows in Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a view in vertical section similar to that of Fig. 2 but showing the toe rest alone before the application of clamping pressure to a shoe thereon.

Referring to these drawings, and particularly to Fig. 1 thereof, the shoe rest is shown as vassociated with the operating elements of a toe-lasting machine of the type disclosed in the mentioned patent to Eastman et al. This machine is provided with a toe plate 10, secured to a supporting member 12, against which the toe end of the shoe being lasted, herein illustrated as comprising an upper U, and an insole I assembled on a last L, is clamped during the operation of the machine to last the upper around the toe end of the shoe by means including a toe gripper 14 and a wiper 16.

The toe rest comprises a base portion including upper and lower parts 20, 22, adjustably secured together by means of a screw 24, this base portion in turn being mounted on the upper end of a post 26 which forms a part of the lasting machine. Supported for universal tipping movement on the top of the upper part 20 of the base portion of the toe rest, by means of a ball 28 which is received in spherically shaped recesses, is a rigid block of metal 30, and fitted over this block and the upper part of the base portion of the toe rest is a cupshaped resilient cushion member 32 formed of rubber. Shaped to t over the top of this cushion member is a cover 34 which is formed of a relatively thin sheet of metal, preferably stainless steel. The cushion member 32 is secured to the upper part 20 of the base portion of the toe rest by means of screws 36, 36 which pass through slots 38, 38 formed in the downwardly extending end portions of the cover 34.

The cover 34 is preshaped to conform generally to the lengthwise curvature of the upper surface of the cushion member 32, see Fig. l, but is generally at in a direction extending widthwise of the toe rest and hence is spaced slightly from the mid portion of the cushion member 32 which is somewhat concaved in this direction, see Fig. 3, which shows the toe rest prior to the application of clamping pressure to a shoe. During the operation of the toe-lasting machine, which is explained in detail in the aforementioned Eastman et al. patent, when the toe end of the shoe is clamped against the plate 10 as a result of the elevation of the toe rest by the post 26, the cushionA member 32 will be compressed slightly and the cover 34 will bend to conform to the curvature of the top portion of the toe end of the shoe in the manner illustrated in Fig. 2. The flexible metal cover 34 is, however, of suicient stiffness to assure a substantially uniform distribution of pressure over the entire area of the upper which is in contact therewith, as the cushion member yields under the action of the clamping pressure, thereby avoiding any danger of the marking of the upper as the result of the localized application of pressure to the upper. However, when the clamping pressure is relieved, upon the downward movement of the toe rest at the end of the operating cycle of the lasting machine, the cover 34 has suflicient resiliency so that it returns to its original shape, as shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings.

The outer or work-engaging surface of the impervious stainless steel cover is buffed to a smooth finish so that it has little or no tendency to pick up color from the upper of one shoe and transmitit to a succeeding shoe. Moreover, if any color or other extraneous material should be retained on the operating surface of the cover 34, it may be readily wiped off by the operator before the next shoe is placed on the shoe rest. Although the exact thickness of the metallic cover may be varied to suit different operating conditions, it has been found that a cover of stainless steel approximately .025 inch thick and heat treated to provide maximum flexibility and resiliency is entirely suitable for general use.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

l. A toe rest for use in shoe machines for supporting the toe end of a shoe, said toe rest comprising a rigid block, a resilient layer of material on said block, and a exible sheet of relatively thin metal covering said resilient layer and providing the shoeengaging surface of the toe rest.

2. A toe rest for use in shoe machines for supporting the toe end of a shoe, said toe rest comprising a rigid block, a resilient layer of material on said block, and a eXible sheet of relatively thin non-corrosive metal covering said resilient layer and providing the shoeengaging surface of the toe rest.

3. A toe rest for use in shoe machines for supporting the toe end of a shoe, said toe rest comprising a rigid block, a resilient layer of material on said block, and a exible sheet of relatively thin stainless steel covering said resilient layer and providing the shoe-engaging surface of the toe rest.

4. A toe rest for use in shoe machines for supporting the toe end of a shoe, said toe rest comprising a rigid block, a resilient layer of material on said block, and a flexible sheet of relatively thin metal covering said resilient layer and having a smooth outer surface for engaging the upper at the toe end of the shoe.

5. A toe rest for use in shoe machines for supporting the toe end of a shoe, said toe rest comprising a rigid block, a resilient layer of material on said block, and a flexible sheet of relatively thin, non-corrosive material covering said resilient layer and having a smooth outer surface for engaging the upper at the toe end of the shoe.

6. A toe rest for use in shoe machines for supporting the toe end of a shoe, said toe rest comprising a rigid block, a resilient layer of material on said block, and a flexible sheet of relatively thin stainless steel covering said resilient layer and having a smooth outer surface for engaging the upper at the toe end of the shoe.

No references cited. 

